There aren't a lot of Western candidates out there, that's for sure. I wouldn't be surprised to see Dosanj or McLellan run, but it'd just be to raise their influence. And Christy Clark keeps geting mentioned...

Seems to me, this is just another "testing the waters" technique. Let some anonymous source "close" to the candidate lead people to think you might not run, leave some time before any "formal announcement" and hope that it stirs a groundswell of calls and emails urging your candidate to "reconsider".

Perhaps,McKenna and his team realize that the "grassroots" will simply not allow a Martinite style leadership campaign again.

Whether fair game or not, McKenna's perception as having the same camp or team as Martin has caused a lot of concern. The LPCO "player" who contacted me about Frank McKenna last week was also a big pusher of Paul Martin in my area of the province during the last leadership.

I dont care if Frank McKenna runs or not, but I remain hopeful that the field is large, the timing sufficient and the campaign open and fair.

Why not have a unilingual high school graduate nepot as the leader of the Liberal party? Although she's hated in several parts of the county, but it's not like the Fibs are going to get any votes in Alberta anyway!

Thank god he's not. We have no use for a pro-life leader of the Liberal party. Martin may not have personally supported abortion, but McKenna spent his entire time as premier of NB fighting against Morgantaler.

The old Conservatives were reduced to 2 seats in '93. The Liberals were "reduced" to ~102 seats. The optics are that the Liberals didn't experience a spectacular defeat, but, the truth is, they did. McKenna and Manley know it, and that is why they are not running.

Many of the Liberals that won beat second-rate candidates. For example, in BC, the Liberals won Richmond, North Vancouver and West Vancouver, because the Conservative riding associations had a short window to find candidates and ended up with three individuals with ties to Focus on the Family. Now the Cons can recruit with the promise of being in gov't. You won't see overt ties to Focus on the Family in urban ridings any more.

It is an ugly time to be a Liberal. Here's hoping for an exciting and open leadership race followed by an inclusive closing of ranks. Anything less would be political suicide for the party.

This actually sounds like good news to me. Frank had a lot of baggage and was the favorite. Now we endup with a real horse race. I think Tobin is now a slight favorite especially since he won't split the maritime delegates.

I'm putting my money on Belinda. The rich elites tried to get her in the top spot at the Tories, only to be stonewalled by the Stephen Harper machine. They REALLY want one of theirs in the PMO. Stephen Harper is the anti-elite, they are going to be doing everything they can to see that Belinda can take a shot at him.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if McKenna gets a nice posting at Magna after all this... ;)

Belinda crosed to board the Titanic and it sank but be darned if she didn't claw aboard a lifeboat. Now will that bit of luck ever make it to shore? Brian Tobin is a contender, but the ship has to be salvaged first.

Renewal of the Liberal Party?

First, the question of facing the courts. A minimum of 10 $billion of our money has been syphoned off. Liberals should pay fair penalties for that.

Starving health care and education to create a surplus does not imply the right to stuff pockets with some of that budget surplus.

34 $million in debt and who knows how much in penalties and fines that may also become due.

Re-think for Liberals: Liberals are infested with crooks. Those crooks must be seen to walk the plank, otherwise one can not expect to regain Canadian voter respect.

Liberal popularity is still spiraling downward and that will continue as the public learns of the full list of rip - offs.